Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has appealed to police representatives to rebuild their trust in the party, insisting that those responsible for its previous failings are no longer part of her team.
Speaking to the Police Federation on Thursday, Mrs Badenoch said the Conservatives were under new leadership and had moved on from the individuals whose actions had damaged relations between the party and police officers.
Comparing the party to a football team, she said: “It’s like a football team. We’re under new management. A lot of the bad players are gone. The public didn’t vote for them to come in. There’s a new manager. We’ve got new players.”
Badenoch Admits Police Officer Cuts Were Wrong
Addressing police leaders who had previously jeered and booed former prime minister Theresa May, Mrs Badenoch acknowledged that the Conservatives had made mistakes during the austerity years.
She admitted that cutting police officer numbers had been the wrong decision, despite the financial pressures facing the government at the time.
Mrs Badenoch said she had not been an MP when Mrs May faced a hostile reception from Police Federation members in 2012 over budget cuts of 20 per cent.
Although she recognised that the government had limited funds available, she said ministers should not have concluded that falling crime rates justified reducing the number of officers.
“There wasn’t any money left,” she said, but added that it was wrong to assume that “because crime is falling, that it’s OK to cut police officers”.
She noted that subsequent governments had increased officer numbers, restoring them to previous levels and going beyond them.
Conservative Leader Defends Stop-and-Search Powers
Mrs Badenoch also used her address to highlight her disagreements with Mrs May’s position on stop and search, arguing that she had consistently supported the police’s use of the powers.
She said she had spoken out in favour of stop and search when other politicians were criticising officers, adding that she believed the police should be making greater use of it where appropriate.
“When we had people criticising officers for stop and search, I was always there saying we need to stop and search. If anything, we should be doing more of it,” she said.
Mrs Badenoch said she had disagreed with Mrs May on the issue and maintained that her support for police officers had been consistent throughout her political career.
Badenoch Rejects Claims of Institutional Racism
The Conservative leader also reiterated her opposition to claims that the police were institutionally racist.
She said she had challenged the accusation directly and stood by officers during the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd in 2020, when the Black Lives Matter movement attracted widespread attention.
Mrs Badenoch said she had resisted what she described as politicians joining the movement’s prevailing political sentiment and had publicly defended the police instead.
“I’ve been saying this stuff for many years, even when it wasn’t easy to do, even when I was the only one that was saying it,” she said.
She added that her record on stop and search, institutional racism and the Black Lives Matter protests was evidence of why officers could place their confidence in her leadership.
Badenoch Acknowledges Public Concerns Over Police Failures
Despite her defence of the police, Mrs Badenoch acknowledged that public confidence had been damaged by serious failures involving officers.
She told the Police Federation that some people viewed the police as becoming a “ghost service” because officers were stretched too thinly to meet public needs.
She also recognised that families had suffered as a result of devastating failures by the police.
Highlighting the case of student Henry Nowak, who was handcuffed while dying after officers failed to believe he had been stabbed, Mrs Badenoch said the footage of his final moments had understandably undermined public trust.
“We can understand why people lose faith in the police when they’ve watched that video footage of Henry’s last moments,” she said.
Her remarks came as she sought to persuade police representatives that the Conservative Party under her leadership would take a different approach to policing and its relationship with officers.
